Blog Post #3: The United States War on Terror

David Solomon

Professor Shirk

POL 357-B

23 April 2017

United States War on Terror

There are many critics of the strategies and tactics employed by the United States in their attempt to combat terrorism around the globe. Focusing on the practices of rendition, torture, bulk data collection, and drone strikes, critics see these as hypocritical and accuse the United States of committing terrorism themselves. However, contrary to these critics, I see the actions conducted by the United States in their “War on Terror” as necessary and effective in combating various terrorist cells deemed dangerous to the national security of not only the United States, but their allies as well. Although I do not believe states can commit terrorism, I am not going to argue why I believe this is true and/or focus on this topic. Rather I am going to look into the intentions behind the “War on Terror” and explore the various avenues in which the United States takes to execute their goal of eliminating terrorist groups.

I do acknowledge that the various actions taken by the United States in combating terrorism may result in innocent people being negatively affected and subsequently fearful of our government and military. A good example is this are the accounts of Pakistani civilians fearful of drones being used in their country to specifically target suspected terrorists in their communities. As noted in the article Living Under Drones,

Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning. Their presence terrorizes men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves. These fears have affected behavior. (Stanford/NYU vii)

My argument is to not dismiss the personal accounts of innocent civilians and noncombatants inhabiting the areas in which the United States is targeting and say that drones do not instill fear among these people. The passage above clearly disapproves this point. However, the intention behind these strikes is not to negatively affect the wider community of people living in an area being targeted. Drones have proven to be effective tools of precision and have helped the United States in undermining the hierarchical structures of various terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda. Drone strikes are used as an alternative to more conventional methods which in many cases would cause a greater amount of collateral damage than drones currently do. The United States is not trying to punish or terrorize the innocent civilians of countries who have terrorist cells located within. If anything, the United States is protecting the innocent civilians who live in the surrounding communities by eliminating suspected individuals.

Similarly to that of drones, the United States usage of rendition, torture, and bulk data collection, are all used with the intention to strictly curb the operations and functionality of terrorist groups. Although critics will point towards the United States abuse of the extrajudicial nature of these tactics, and specifically with tortue - its human rights violations, these strategies have worked for the United States and are only used against suspected terrorist. It is hard to argue for the morality of counter-terrorism strategies, but unlike conventional wars between nations, terrorist groups are not going to abide by some code of laws when it comes to combat. Because of this, the United States has to essentially fight fire with fire and use unconventional methods themselves to have effective results in mitigating terrorist operations. I acknowledge and agree that these methods employed by the United States only have short term success and inevitably play a role in perpetuating a never ending cycle of violence particularly within Middle Eastern countries. However, when looking at the tumultuous situation in the Middle East currently and the seemingly unanimous animosity people of this area of the world have for the West, it is hard for the United States not to continue these actions. I am not saying that everyone in the Middle East wants to kill westerners and specifically Americans, but rather the overall attitude this region has towards the West is very much negative and as a result has made it so any sort of more passive or peaceful strategies of counter-terrorism may pose to put the national security of the United States at risk.

Overall, the United States “War on Terror” should not be perceived as terrorism since they’re goal is not to instill fear among innocent people. They are not terrorizing indiscriminately and intentionally killing non-combatants to push a political agenda. Although these may be the unfortunate implications of the strategies and tactics employed by the United States, at the end of the day all they’re trying to do is to mitigate the operations of terrorist groups.